How can an apartment community build their Facebook fan page audience by appealing to the good will of others? Since 72% of U.S. consumers will volunteer to participate in socially conscious opportunities, the holiday season is the perfect opportunity to encourage giving.

Below are two strategies to get your apartment community brainstorming. If your community uses one of these ideas or is implementing a unique idea, please come back and share your story with us.

Help a Family In Need

GOAL
Raise money for a local family in need while increasing your apartment community’s Facebook fan count.

TACTICS1. Determine the maximum amount of money your community will contribute to this cause. (HINT: $500 – $1,000 seems like a good start.)

2. Announce to your residents, local friends, and local businesses that you’re raising money for a family in need. This can be done with posters, flyers, emails, and even when residents visit your leasing office. Don’t forget to share this information on your websites!

3. To determine the recipient family, have your fans nominate recipients via private/direct Facebook messages. They should include the name, address, description of family members and circumstances (foreclosure, job loss, illness). Keep your selection confidential.

4. Put a deadline on the event: December 20 would be time for the family to use the money to purchase their children gifts or pay their rent/mortgage for the next month.

5. Fan of the Season: Consider a drawing of all the fans of the Facebook page. On the deadline announce a winner and give a nominal prize.

6. Use Facebook to generate activity:

Create a new profile picture for your fan page to inspire giving.

Create a new Facebook event, using the deadline as the date of the event.

Encourage your onsite teams to participate.

Update Facebook daily and thank each new fan.

Invite residents and fans to come to the office to sign a card for the family.

7. For property management groups: consider having a contest to see which community gains the most fans. Make a list of the number of fans your community has today, and subtract that count from the total number of fans on December 20.

8. Deliver the gift to the family with a signed card from your community, via the person that nominated the family.

NOTE:Selection of family and donation should be discreet.

Raise Money for Charity

GOAL
To raise money for a local or national charity while increasing fan count. (HINT: determine a minimum goal $100, $250, $500, $1,000 ?)

TACTICS1. This campaign is perfect for a property management group with multiple properties. There are two ways to organize this event:

Donate to a single charity from the corporate office

Encourage each individual community to select a charity

2. After selecting your strategy from above, utilize Facebook by:

Creating a new profile picture for your fan page.

Establishing a Facebook event, using the deadline as the date of the event.

Inviting everyone you know to participate by liking the page and pledging donations.

Allowing fans to pledge on Facebook. (HINT: even allow pledges as low as $1)

Collect the pledged money in the office safe or open a short-term savings account.

Permitting anonymous donations to be made by accepting the donation and posting on Facebook that an anonymous donation was received.

Updating Facebook daily with the total amount received and remind fans of the goal and thank each new fan and contributor daily.

3. Fan of the Season: Consider a drawing of all the fans of the Facebook page. On the deadline announce a winner and give a nominal prize!

4. For property management groups: consider having a contest to see which community collects the most money for charity. Reward the winning team with gift cards!

5. Don’t forget:

Post flyers, posters, signs around your community and neighboring businesses.

Encourage your onsite teams to participate.

Consider matching the funds raised.

Take pictures of those residents that donate in your office and post them on Facebook.

Thank you for the helpful suggestions! We are trying a variation of the first idea at Mills Properties this year. It’s early but it seems have the makings of a hit.

What do you think about the idea of creating more than a campaign – something that lives beyond the one time of the year that we feel compelled to give. What if your community became the conduit or platform for a hyper-local charitable organization? It could have the makings of the premise for the book Brains on Fire.

Thanks again for the great ideas. Take care and have an amazing weekend.

Thanks for reading and commenting Mike! I’d love to hear more about what you’re doing at Mills. Maybe you’ll blog about it (hint,hint)!

I think that your idea is awesome! If your community is known in the local area for consistently contributing back to the community, that would inspire a loyalty that cannot be bought with concessions. Can you imagine a resident wearing a t-shirt that promotes the community and the charity? All kinds of ideas are bouncing around my head now!